Told and untold stories: Finding new ways to represent the voices of culturally diverse learners through narrative vignettes

Abstract

This article considers the challenges of representing young, ethnically diverse learners via narrative vignettes. Aware of young learners’ underrepresentation in research reporting compared to adult teaching perspectives, we feel it important to review methodologies that claim to represent young learners’ stories. Looking back at a year-long critical ethnography, we return to the data, reflecting on old conversations while revisiting the motivations behind writing narrative vignettes. Our new conversations consider how this brought participants (and researchers) in from the ‘margins’ of research. We reflect through an embodied, emotional and affective lens, raising important questions around the ethics of representation and making socially just choices. We conclude that narrative vignettes are not giving voice to young learners, but that the methodology captures both told and untold stories which benefit from a reflexive approach to data at the time of the research as well as retrospectively.